Avalanche
by LittlePrettyLove
Summary: Marina Harper was hoping to have a year off before heading to university helping out in a hospital in a small village in Kumsa. However her plans are foiled when she misses a taxi and boards a bus that takes her to Kyrat.


Quick Warning- This chapter does contain casual racism (it is Pagan we're talking about), so if you are offended by things like this, please don't read.

Also, this chapter is written in second person (I'll explain why in the AN at the end)

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 _Kathmandu Airport, Nepal._

"Ok, Miss. You are free to go," the officer said to you whilst handing you your luggage.

You glowered in return before being escorted out of the room reserved for checking people for drug smuggling.

You had just spent three hours sitting around in a humid office after someone had described you as looking 'nervous' as you waited to get your suitcase from the conveyer belt, which alerted some officers to go after you as you tried to hurry off to get to your taxi. It wasn't that you were nervous because you were smuggling drugs, but because the humidity and heat had gotten to you, making sweat pour out of every gland which, alas, made you look nervous.

Unfortunately, you were stopped and taken into a room where you had to watch officers tip open the contents of your bag and search every crevice of each item you owned before being told to strip down to nothing, so that your clothes could be searched before having to give a sample of your urine, waiting for the results, then going in to have an x-ray just to make sure you hadn't shoved anything into your vagina or swallowed a load of drugs for you to shit out later.

So you weren't in such a good mood. You had been travelling non-stop and you had missed your taxi, so you were probably going to have to catch a bus as it was getting late and you doubted that there would be a taxi willing to pick you up.

You were tired, hungry and scared. You had to book the taxi yourself as the gap year programme you were with didn't deal with travel and now you were in a foreign with nothing but your phone that currently had no SIM card in it, leaving you to fend for yourself as you couldn't call your brother for help or anything.

You walked until you found an exit and saw that your taxi driver had indeed gone without you. You had had enough and the absolute exhaustion caused you to just collapse onto your knees. You felt the urge to cry, yet tears didn't flood into your eyes but you were dry sobbing in an attempt to let all of your pent up emotions out.

You took some deep breaths whilst gripping the roots of your hair and tightly shutting your eyes and trying not to yell out in frustration. You could always sleep over at the airport, but you had been going from airport to airport and if you had to stay one second longer in another bloody airport, you were going to flat out jump in front of a plane.

That was an exaggeration, but in that moment, you couldn't seem to take anything in.

Just then, you felt someone tap your shoulder.

"Miss, are you alright?" the voice asked

You looked up to see a middle aged man with a sympathetic smile and the softest eyes you had ever seen.

You exhaled deeply.

"I missed my taxi through no fault of my own and now, I don't know what to do. I can't contact the people I'm staying with and I have no idea if anyone is willing to take me to my accommodation," you explained

"Where are you staying?" he asked

"A village in Kumsa called Nagardara," you replied

The man thought for a bit before giving you a reassuring pat on the back.

"I have a bus. I can take you the whole way there," he said

Was this what God looked like? Although you were an atheist, you would have been happy to proclaim this man as the messiah, start a church movement in his name all for this act of kindness. You widened your eyes in surprise and you swore you could have kissed the man, but you refrained from doing so in case you scared the man into not giving you a ride.

"Thank you. Thank you so much," was all you could say as other thoughts about him being Jesus had been censored from coming out of your mouth.

"Follow me," the bus driver said

You followed him over to the old green, white, and red bus that needed a paint job. You noticed that it had beads and flowers in garlands hanging out of the windows and adding vibrancy to the bus.

"Miss, your suitcase, please?" the bus driver said with an outstretched hand,

The weather was slightly humid and that mixed with your exhaustion made you feel even more tired. You were holding onto your coat as you were told that the temperatures in your accommodation were to drop dramatically at night, however, even as you saw the sun start to go down, you didn't feel a chill in the air.

You groggily handed your suitcase to the bus driver before being led by the same man up the steps onto the bus before being shown to a seat in the middle of the bus. You were gestured to sit down, so you slid over beside the window and slung your travel bag off your shoulder before sitting down and placing your bag on your lap.

The seat was of a worn black leather with a slightly spongy texture. Looking at the seat next to you, you could see holes in the seat that revealed a light yellow sponge sticking out.

The driver then put your suitcase next to you.

"Miss, may I ask a favour of you?" the driver asked quietly

You looked around to see an elderly woman dozing in the seat behind you and a middle aged man sitting across from you.

"Go ahead," you mumbled

After all, you were indebted to this man as he saved you from losing it in the airport. Although you were grateful, you couldn't help but want this man to leave you alone so that you could sleep.

You didn't want to seem rude, but you had been travelling none stop as there were no direct flights from London to Kathmandu, so you flew from London to Frankfurt to New Delhi before getting on your final flight to Kathmandu. So with all of that travelling, you had gotten very little sleep and so you were feeling slightly cranky and maybe a tad emotional and you were craving for the sweet release of sleep.

"Ah, yes, thank you, Miss. You see, my family is currently trapped in a very bad country and cannot escape on their own. So, I use this bus to help save them, but this country is very dangerous place and all I need is your consent to let me save my family, yes?" the man said humbly

It took you a bit longer than it usually would have for you to process the driver's words, but once the words started to click, you pondered on the word 'country'.

"It is very close to your destination. It is actually on a border with your destination and it won't take too long. I promise," the man almost pleaded

You exhaled and nodded. After all, you would be helping someone out. Even if that meant putting yourself at risk. Plus, this man had helped you out, it would be fair for you to do the same.

"Sure. I don't mind. Will I have to do anything?" you asked

The man quickly shook his head.

"No, Miss. All you have to do is keep sitting down and staying calm. If you do anything strange, it might alert the guards and then we will all be in trouble," the driver explained

You could do that easily. Sit there and do nothing. It was something you were extraordinarily good at.

In fact, you could sleep through this ordeal.

In all honesty, you probably would have questioned the driver a bit more if you were alert and not feeling so exhausted; but alas, sitting in economy class with very little leg room made sure that you never got any sleep throughout your journey. Thankfully, with the suitcase in the way, you couldn't have anyone sitting next to you like on the plane. If you remember correctly, the people in the neighbouring seats were: gossiping women (Gatwick to Frankfurt), a woman and a screaming toddler (Frankfurt to New Delhi), or a woman telling you how pretty you were and to follow her as soon as the plane landed (Delhi to Kathmandu). Although this bus seemed like it was on its last leg before it fell over, it was better than any seat that you had on any of the planes.

Also the ordeal in the airport had completely drained you emotionally as well as physically as you had been accused of smuggling drugs into the country when you would do no such thing. You were an honest citizen wouldn't smuggle drugs, let alone take them as you hated what drugs did to families and what organised crime syndicates did with their workers.

After all, your older brother was in charge of one.

Your father and brother never forced you to get involved with their business, in fact, they were kind to you and never treated you badly, but you saw what happened to people who crossed their paths or made honest mistakes and in all honesty, it sickened you. Yes, it funded your expensive lifestyle, but part of you wanted to make your own honest money and have as little contact with the gang as possible. Of course you wanted to still be in touch with your brother, but you didn't want to be reminded every day that this was the business you were born into.

You wrapped your arms around your bag and snuggled into it. You started to rest your head against the window when you felt the bus let out a deep cough before the engine spluttered to life.

You huffed as you put your head against the window and looked out at the scenery as the bus started to move forwards. You could just about see the greenery of the mountains as the sun started to disappear behind them and the sky started to darken. This meant that anytime soon, the temperature would start to decrease and the coat you had been lumbering around with you would come in handy and make a useful blanket.

You were currently on a gap year before heading off to university to study Medicine at university. On your gap year, you decided to teach English and volunteer at a local hospital in Kumsa. This way, you could gain experience with people of different ages and you could see what equipment was on offer in schools and hospitals in LEDCs and what you could give to the community.

You were going to be stuck on the bus for a pretty long time. Six hours to be precise. But as your head was pressed against the cool surface of the window, you couldn't help but feel the powerful influence of sleep take over. You were now so exhausted that you weren't startled by the bumps in the road and they didn't lessen your need to sleep.

You closed your eyes for what felt like seconds before you fell into a deep slumber.

You felt yourself jolt as your eyes quickly opened. They were heavy and a headache started raging through your skull.

You groaned as you grabbed your head and started massaging it whilst gritting your teeth.

You then realised that there was a man standing next to you with his hand on your shoulder and he was continuing to shake you awake. Had you arrived at your accommodation already? You weren't sure about how long you had been asleep for, but it didn't feel like a long time since you had left the airport.

"What is it?" you groaned as you continued to massage your head,

The man let go of your shoulder and bowed his head.

"I am sorry that I had to wake you, but we are near the boarders of Kyrat. If I am correct, you don't have a visa to enter, right?" he asked

You shook your head.

"There are soldiers guarding every entrance and exit of Kyrat. They will stop the bus and ask for the passports of every person on board. They might even search the bus if they feel the need to. What's going to happen just before we reach the boarders is you will get under the chair and cover yourself with your coat and I will sit in your seat. Once we pass the guards, you will remain under the seat until we pick up the family. Once we do that, we will head for the nearest exit and we will fucking step on it before the guards can catch us, sound ok?"

You looked at the man in bewilderment. This whole situation was completely mental.

But you had your morals. You liked saving other people's lives as it made you feel like you had accomplished something. That sensation that came with the accomplishment made you want to do a degree in medicine in the first place.

What else drew you to the idea?

It was completely insane and you were sure that there would be a huge rush of adrenaline as you did this. Even if you were only hiding under a seat.

You nodded.

"Good. Now, get under the seat,"

You stood up and knelt down and looked at how much space you had to put up with for God knows how long.

There wasn't much. The entire floor of the seat was covered in a thick layer of dust which made you cringe. Why did you agree to this?

"We don't have much time, get under the seat!" the man urged you

You took a deep breath and rolled under the seat. You recoiled as you felt the dust brush against your cheek and more so when you realised that you would have to remain in this position for an unknown amount of time. You curled up as much as possible before grabbing your coat and putting it over yourself.

You felt the bus continue at a steady speed.

"Remember, if you get caught in here with us, we all go down," the man said to you

You felt your heartbeat quicken when the man told you this information.

'If you get caught' sent the message home that what you were doing was completely illegal and God knows what the laws of this country allowed. Death penalty? Imprisonment? You shuddered at the thought.

The bus then slowed down and halted and you heard the harsh words of a foreign tongue spit at the kind bus driver. The bus driver replied in a quieter tone before you heard the bus door slam open and someone get out.

There was more spitting and hissings, but you heard someone clamber onto the bus and the engine start up again.

"We are past the first boarder. I'm sorry you'll have to stay down there for a bit," the man in the seat above you said

You had lost track of time before the bus started to slow down again and more hurried voices came from outside the bus.

You could make out the words of a woman, a young girl, a teenage boy and an old man. They were talking quickly as the doors opened up again, this time, the footsteps were quick and nervous. Once everyone was on, the bus driver wasted no time in starting up the bus again and putting his foot to the floor in an attempt to escape.

You dug your nails into your coat as you felt the speed of the bus get faster and faster and the voices of the family become more and more quick when suddenly, you heard the woman scream.

At first, you didn't know what she was screaming about. The bus seemed to only get faster and faster as the voices above you became more panicked and you could only wonder why.

Suddenly, you heard the loud 'Bang' of a gunshot which caused the bus to slow down but not stop.

The voices above you become more hurried and frantic and you could hear a young girl start to cry. The bus driver said something in a harsh voice when there was suddenly more gunshots being fired at the bus which caused it to completely stop.

You gulped as you tried to make yourself smaller under the chair.

The woman and girl were now sobbing uncontrollably as more gunshots were fired at the bus.

You suddenly heard the man in the seat above you shout something in the native language before there was a very loud 'Bang' as the gun was fired and the glass of the window was smashed.

"Everyone, get down!" the guy in the seat above you cried as more guns were fired, causing more glass to shatter and crash to the floor.

The man then reached under your coat cover and grabbed your hand reassuringly.

"There is an exit below the bus. All you need to do is pull up the lever and get out, you will have to work something out from there," he explained quickly

"What about you and the family?" you asked

"They have already been seen and they as well as I knew the consequences that were associated with this mission. We have failed and it would only be fair if you escaped. After all, you never really asked for this. We never asked for you to get involved. Now, do as I say," the man said sternly

In a panic, you crawled out from under the seat and crawled over to the middle of the bus. The man stepped over you and opened a hatch in the floor. You looked down and saw cold uninviting snow on the ground.

You quickly put on your coat and slid out through the hatch and another weight landed on top of you. You turned to see that the man had dropped your backpack on top of you before closing and locking the hatch.

"Get off the bus! Get off the fucking bus!" a man yelled from outside the bus

You had failed to realise that the gunfire had ceased and the mountains were now eerily quiet except for the sound of the whirring blades of a helicopter that sounded very close by.

You held your breath as you lay flat on your stomach with your hands clasped around your mouth. The footsteps of every passenger slowly stepped off the bus where they were greeted with a tongue lashing from someone.

You turned your head to the side and put your cheek on the ground and looked out to see that the elderly woman, the bus driver, the middle aged man that sat in your seat, the woman, the girl, and the boy were standing in a straight line outside the bus with a gun pointed at each of them.

If you weren't so shocked, you would have probably done something stupid in order to divert the soldiers' attention, but alas, you were frozen to the spot, wondering how to get out of this shit you had gotten yourself into and what you could do to help.

The sound of helicopter blades became quieter and quieter before they stopped and you heard the sound of the helicopter doors slam open. As this happened, you felt the atmosphere sift to one of complete dread and hopelessness. It was even radiating off the soldiers as you could see a few eyes widen in fear before looking down.

There was a silence that consumed everyone. A silence that was fuelled by fear.

You looked to your right and saw a pair rich brown leather shoes and you could just about see up to the mid-thigh of the wearer's trousers. The trousers were bright fuchsia and even you had to admit, rather fabulous. You would have thought of something to cheer yourself up, but you were too scared to think of anything that didn't involve freezing to death.

"King Min," all of the soldiers uttered

'King?' You thought. Surely the leader of a country would be too busy to deal with something like a bus trying to leave the boarder without permission, right? Surely this wasn't some private execution that served as a punishment.

"What the fuck happened over here?" this 'King Min' asked

His accent was British, but there was also another twang in his voice that suggested that he was perhaps mixed raced, however, you couldn't see his face, so you couldn't tell for sure.

"They tried to escape the boarders without authorisation," the same soldier replied

You saw the feet of that person stop in front of you.

"Escape? Why would you try to escape, hm?" the man asked before sauntering over to the people from the bus

"What could make you hate your country so much that you would want to snatch up your family at six o'clock in the morning and try and leave without anyone telling you that it was alright to do so? Tell me," he said in a dangerous tone

From this guy's tone of voice, you could tell that the question he was asking was rhetorical and that in all honesty, he didn't want to hear what this family had to say. He was toying with them, like a cat would do with a mouse before it finally drew the curtain and killed it.

"You know, you fucking terrorists, you have to go and spoil everything. So, do you want to know what happens to little monkeys who misbehave?" he asked

Silence.

In one swift motion, the man in the pink trousers shoved what looked like a blade into the abdomen of the bus driver. You gasped as he kept on stabbing the man over and over again. The man in the pink trousers uttered something to the bus driver with each stab, however, you couldn't make out what he was saying.

The woman and two children cried out as they watched their loved one and only hope die before them.

You clasped your hands tighter around your mouth to stop yourself from yelling out in anguish. That man had helped you in a time of need, yet in his, you were incompetent. You were good when it came to self-defence, but trained soldiers with guns and what sounded like the leader of these soldiers would be tough to take down on your own.

All you could do was devise a plan to get out from under the bus and find a place to hide before perhaps calling for help. You checked your coat pocket and sure enough, your phone was there. Your SIM-less phone. God fucking damn.

You looked at the space on the opposite side of the bus and saw that there were two soldiers on that side, making your escape impossible. You cursed under your breath as you lay as still as possible, just waiting for the next move to be made.

"Now for the rest of you,"

There was yet another silence.

"Shoot them. All except the two children. I can't have the nation thinking that I'm some unfeeling monster now, can I?"

You squeezed your eyes shut as multiple bangs from every direction started going off around you. You felt the vibration of a body hit the bus before tumbling down into the snow. The desperate scream of a woman and the shriek of a small girl were silenced by bullets. The small gasp of an elderly woman ran through your ears over the sound of firing bullets. The man said nothing as he dropped to the floor as all gunfire ceased.

You were clutching your mouth with all your strength as you were trying to prevent yourself from crying out and being noticed. You barely knew these people, but they were just killed without mercy before you and all you could do was lie on your stomach and feel nothing but helplessness in this situation.

You opened your eyes when you felt something warm run against your leg.

You knew what it was and you knew that if you looked, you would probably yell out in surprise. However, it was a need for confirmation, like you needed to know if this family was really dead and this country really was unsafe. So you hesitantly started to turn your head and look down at your leg.

Sure enough, a stream of blood from the mother and old woman had forked together to make a bigger river that had trickled in the direction of your leg and was now running across it.

You knew that if you were to be in the medical profession, you would be seeing blood on a day to day basis and death wouldn't be uncommon to you. But having a family shot and killed before you isn't the same as trying to help someone out or helping someone to ease their pain. There was a huge difference between those two professions.

"Now, children. Run along now and remember that this will be you if you ever disobey the laws that are set in place for your protection," the man said in a surprisingly gentle tone.

Sure enough, you heard the scuffle of feet and the hushed voices of the two children as they moved as quickly as possible in the mountainous terrain. Their feet thundered against the ground and there was a small trip before you could no longer hear the children.

You must have made a sound because you were now subconsciously gripping your mouth as if you had said something wrong.

"I thought that was all of them. Don't tell me there's another little monkey under the bus," the man from earlier said

You concluded that you were eternally fucked.

Were you going to be dragged out and shot like the rest of the family?

You crossed your arms in front of your face and rested your head on your forearms, hoping to hide your face without getting a face full of snow.

It was like you had accepted there was no escape. All of the perimeters of the bus were guarded and all you could do now was accept your fate.

"We can see something under the bus," said one guard whose voice was very close to your face

There was a sigh.

"Well, don't just stand there. Get them out before they escape. Quickly!"

You felt the blood drain from your face as you felt your minutes in the land of the living start to slip between your fingers as you felt a gloved hand grab your ankle in a tight grip and started to pull you out from under the bus.

You didn't scream, but you desperately clawed at the ground, hoping to find some leverage as you started to frantically kick at the hands that had grabbed you like a wild beast. You twisted your body in a way that you were still just about facing the ground, but your hips were tilted, making it easier for you to land a powerful kick.

However, that hand only clamped harder the more you kicked and you were dragged out with more force. You suddenly felt a searing pain down your cheek, causing you to gasp in pain. You then looked at the snow and confirmed that whatever caused pain had indeed drawn blood as there was a small amount of blood in the snow.

Once you no longer felt the shelter of the bus above your head, you could safely assume that you were no longer under its protection and you were now at the mercy of some blade wielding lunatic with an army on his side.

Your face was still on the ground as you felt a hand grab the back of your head and yank your hair as they pulled your face up off the ground to look at the face of your executor.

You let out a small yelp as the guard had painfully tugged at your roots, causing a sharp jolt to go around your scalp and down your neck.

Then you saw him.

This man who had ordered his men to shoot innocent people was staring at you in curiosity. It was as if he hadn't seen a westerner before. His eyes dragged across your face, scanning your eyes, cheeks, lips, nose, and hair.

All you could do was stare in shock at the man before you. Your lips refused to move as the same thought kept on running through your head:

'He's a murderer'

As you stared at this man, you realised that he looked nothing like the rest of his soldiers.

For starters: His ethnicity was definitely Asian, although you couldn't quite pinpoint where in Asia. Japan? China? South Korea?

His hair was also a little eccentric as the sides had been buzzed off except for a section of hair that was combed to the side and dyed shocking blonde. He was wearing a pink suit under a dark grey trench coat. What shocked you the most was that on his face, there were flecks of crimson blood dotted on his face. The blood that belonged to the bus driver.

"Now, what do we have here?" he asked as he stared deeply into your eyes

You gulped before looking down in disgust. You knew that if you stared at the blood for too long, you would lose your shit and avenge everyone who had been killed on the bus. His guards were also here, so that if you went so far as to touch him, you would probably be shot or killed in some other grizzly way.

"Why don't you give me your name, girl? And maybe, if you behave, I can take you to my place and introduce you to the delicacy of Crab Rangoon. How does that sound?""

Fucking suspicious, who the fuck kills a group of pretty innocent people and then invite a complete stranger over for 'Crab Rangoon'. What the fuck even is a Crab Rangoon? Shit could he be a pimp? Or a drug smuggler and now you're his mule that shoves drugs up their vaginas.

That was only a small serving of the rapid ideas going through your head.

But you stood your ground. Your brother was the leader of a pretty scary network of gangs, you learnt how to bare your teeth in the eyes of death, even if he looks like a ponce. You summoned every bit of strength you had left and looked up again. This time, you hardened the glint in your eye, hoping that it would make you seem tougher.

"I don't believe you gave me yours. If you are to invite me to 'Crab Rangoon' with you, surely, it would be rude not to introduce yourself first, right?" you said without a waver in your voice

The man before you widened his eyes in shock as if he had been slapped around the face.

'Shit, now I've done it. Now I've fucked up my chances of surviving this ordeal,' you mentally screamed at yourself.

You looked up again to see the man was now smiling and began to laugh. Was this it? Was his laugh going to cause one of his men to pull the trigger?

"You really have come here to cheer me up, haven't you? Of course it would be rude if I didn't introduce myself first. My name is Pagan Min, King of Kyrat. Now, it's your turn to introduce yourself,"

You gulped.

If you were to get along with this man in the hopes of getting to Kumsa, you were going to have to play by the rules and do what he told you to.

"Marina. Marina Harper," you replied

Pagan tilted his head to the side and smiled in a way that wasn't threatening in any way. In fact, it was sweet and inviting.

"Marina Harper. It's a pleasure to meet you. Now," Pagan stood up before offering you a hand

You hesitantly grabbed onto his hand and pulled yourself up.

"I have to apologise for what you had to witness. It really is a shame that this had to be your first experience in Kyrat. No worries, we can write this over at dinner and we can really get to know each other. Now, I hope you don't mind…"

A bag made of a scratchy material was thrown over your head.

Was this all a ploy? Were you being dragged somewhere to be beaten and publicly executed?

You knew you were going to find out soon enough as you felt yourself being guided forwards into the unknown.

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Thank you for reading!

I'm sorry if I didn't get Pagan's character absolutely spot on, but at least I tried.

Ok, so the reason I put this in second person is because I wanted to capture the essence of the game as in the game, you are the character. So if you're not a fan of second person, I apologise.

The next chapter of my other story should be out soon but I've got exams coming up and I have done nothing but procrastinate on every project even revision (which I haven't even started and the exams start in May). But I have two weeks off school to revise and write more of the chapter (fingers crossed).

Anyway, thanks again for reading (*≧▽≦)


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